ProZ.com Translation Forums

Linguistic validation of medical translations | Hi Marwa

Natalie — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:13:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Linguistic validation of medical translations
Poster: Natalie
Post title: Hi Marwa

Please write a fill article on the subject and submit to the knowledgebase instead of making short posts in the forum.

This would be much more useful for medical translators.

Thank you.

Linguistic validation of medical translations | Not for diagnosing

Marjolein Snippe — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 07:25:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Linguistic validation of medical translations
Poster: Marjolein Snippe
Post title: Not for diagnosing

Ha ha, yes, let's not follow these steps when diagnosing, but these are the standard steps to be followed when, for example, creating a new questionnaire to measure what a particular disease or treatment does to the patient.

Linguistic validation of medical translations | Unless ...

Jennifer Levey — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:53:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Linguistic validation of medical translations
Poster: Jennifer Levey
Post title: Unless ...

[quote]Marwa Seleem wrote:
...
It may seem lengthy and complicated, but it is more enjoyable to practice than to read about! [/quote]

... you're the patient, since you will probably be dead and buried before even the first of those steps is completed.

Linguistic validation of medical translations

Marwa Seleem — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Linguistic validation of medical translations
Poster: Marwa Seleem

Linguistic Validation!

It is considered one of the highly specialized branches of medical translation. It encompasses multiple critical steps till you reach the optimum final version.

Briefly, these steps include:

🔸️Forward translation, may be done by 2 separate translators, in this step each sentence will have a "concept elaboration" to make sure you grasp the precise meaning of it

🔸️Reconciliation of the 2 forward translations

🔸️Backward translation to ensure conveying of meaning

🔸️Back translation analysis

🔸️Reviewing/proofreading of the translation, mainly the reviewer would have a medical background

🔸️Final review

These steps may include a cultural assessment to determine whether the translation is appropriate for specific communities and doesn't carry any negative connotations.

Then you have the final copy ready to go!

It may seem lengthy and complicated, but it is more enjoyable to practice than to read about!

Invitation for a survey about COVID-19 related interpreting

Lucia Fantucci — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 13:23:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Invitation for a survey about COVID-19 related interpreting
Poster: Lucia Fantucci

For my master's degree thesis I am carrying out experimental research on the role of interpreters during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to assess the attitude and challenges encountered by professionals, I created a Google form to collect direct answers.
The time of completion is around 10 minutes.
Link to the form : [url removed]

Thanks in advance to everyone is going to answer my form and give a contribution to my research!

Where can I find volunteer medical translation? | Doctors without Borders

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:24:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Where can I find volunteer medical translation?
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: Doctors without Borders

[url removed]

Where can I find volunteer medical translation?

Luiza Tinetti — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 02:35:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Where can I find volunteer medical translation?
Poster: Luiza Tinetti

Hello! I am fairly new in the translation career but experienced in the medical/healthcare field. I've been trying to contact agencies and other websites to start building my portfolio, but I can't seem to be able to find anything that helps me do so. Most of them say I need an extensive experience in order to even put me up for a translation test.

Any ideas of where I could get started?

Thank you so much.

Partnership: translation/editing medical articles for EN publication | @Lucas

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 18:41:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Partnership: translation/editing medical articles for EN publication
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: @Lucas

A lot of questions. For starters, how would this structure be organised? Who would serve as PM? Who would handle the invoicing?...

Partnership: translation/editing medical articles for EN publication

Lucas Alexander — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 17:16:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Partnership: translation/editing medical articles for EN publication
Poster: Lucas Alexander

Calling all medical translators,
I have in mind a cooperative for medical translators.
French University Hospitals are producing a lot of novel work for publication.
The clinical fields are very broad but they all require proofreading and often translation.
I believe these Hospitals are bound by an obligation to meet regulatory standards.
Eg. ISO......
Who feels like setting up a structure that could approach the 45+ University Hospitals in France.
They try to go it alone but their medical (and statistical) English is dreadful.
I cannot reveal my source publicly but I am receiving bi-monthly articles from a single CHU.
We could multiply this by 45 at least. At the last count.
And double revenue by not passing through an agency.
We would need a partner with medical qualifications.
I should add that we could incorporate every EU country and particularly China/Russia/Iran/Ex-Soviet States.
Who's in?

Best regards.
Lucas Alexander.

[Edited at 2024-02-29 18:11 GMT]

Scanned medical documents | Handwritten?

Samuel Murray — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 10:01:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Handwritten?

[quote]Giovanna Looney wrote:
I have received 100 scanned pages, all medical documents. [/quote]
Wit lots of handwritten portions, right? You need to be an expert expert in that field to translate such files, because people who write things in handwriting do not assume that the text is going to be translated Doctors are not careful with how they write, especially if they believe that their writing will be read by other people in their own field. They assume that if they're being ambiguous or unclear, their reader will understand what they had meant or will be familiar with the special abbreviations that they use in their particular subfield. This means that unless you know what doctors mean when they are being ambiguous, you should not accept this job, unless your client is happy that your translation will be guesswork.

Typically, if the documents are forms that were filled in, you'd be required to recreate those forms, although your recreation doesn't have to look perfect -- it just has to show the exact same content as the original in roughly the exact same locations on the page. If you're lucky, there are many repeated forms, so you should be able to create one template and then fill it in with the translations each time.

It is unlikely that you would be able to use a CAT tool for this... unless... unless perhaps you can ask a typist to re-create the documents in Word *and* get the typist to type the handwritten text for you. Then all you need to do is proofread the typist's work against the original, to ensure that she typed it correctly, and THEN you can use a CAT tool. That said, you'd have to disable auto-propagation, because in medical files, identical abbreviations in different places can mean very different things.

[quote]Frank Hedes wrote:
For me the best approach is to transcribe the entire document, edit and format it as closely as possible to the original, and start translating. [/quote]
Exactly. Normally, the translation steps are: load the file into the CAT tool, and translate. In this case, the translation steps are: create the files in Word (with tables, etc.), type in the source text into those files, then load the file into the CAT tool, and translate.

The reason I suggested a typist is because sometimes, some typists are experts at formatting in Word and would be able to recreate the documents in Word a lot faster than you ever can. And they can type in the source text much faster than you can. Remember to tell the typist to recreate tables as actual tables (not tabs) and not to use any floating text boxes.

One hundred documents......... it's time to think outside the box.

[Edited at 2024-02-17 10:12 GMT]

Scanned medical documents | @Giovanna

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 09:45:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: @Giovanna

I do agree with everything that was said before, but are you sure this isn’t some kind of a scam? The fact that you ask if word by word translation is the best approach shows me that you lack experience in this kind of work and it makes me wonder why you were approached to translate 100 pages of medical records. Please forgive me if I’m mistaken, but your profile says nothing about you…

Scanned medical documents | Perhaps...

Matthias Brombach — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 05:57:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Matthias Brombach
Post title: Perhaps...

...you should outsource the copy work first to an external, e.g. via the job board here on Proz. Ask for the "best rate" and you'll wonder how cheap, easy, and fast you will get back the texts. Ask for a testpiece and check the quality, but don't ask for all the sheets as a test. Or ask all 500 applicants for a free test. That's the usual way almost all of us experienced in the beginning.

[Bearbeitet am 2024-02-17 06:03 GMT]

Scanned medical documents | What Anton said, obviously!

Korana Lasić — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 01:26:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Korana Lasić
Post title: What Anton said, obviously!

If you do not understand the source well enough to know where and how to find the most accurate ways to render it into target text, you cannot translate it. If you meant more along the lines of 'how to deal with the fact the these pages are scanned', then, yes, a tool that shall OCR each page, turn it into Word format and do it well enough that it preserves 90% of the text accurately is needed.

There are some free ones, online, that work well enough, but for a 100-page order, I'd invest in a professional one -- you must pay for. Perhaps you can also try to get a free 30-day trial of a professional PDF reading tool. Like Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, or the one Michael suggested.

I would charge EUR 35 (GBP 30) per very legible, easy to OCR page, up to EUR 55 (GBP 50) per page with loads of handwritten text I need to fill in myself.

You can charge your per every word rate if some of these pages are a single document consisting of nothing but simple text. No layout fixing, no tables, no handwritten text and the document is over 500 words long. But anything that will take you half an hour to OCR and produce a layout similar to the source should be treated as a separate single document and charged a minimum rate for. (EUR 35 to 55)

I've never had a 100 scanned pages order but have done a good deal of scanned documents in smaller orders (from 1 to 10 documents per order) and these rates make it all worthwhile, since there's a good deal of work to be done before you get to the very translation work.

Also, like Anton said, if you do end up finishing the project, keep all the documents, to use them as templates for the next assignment that includes the same document.

You do not want to charge this simply per word, like it's just another text order, not all of it anyway. Your fee for this project must include compensation for having to OCR and editing the layout, since often this can require quite some time and effort.

Do not be fooled by 'this is huge order can we have discounts' nonsense, since working on hundred pages of medical documents might well mean you will have to turn assignments from other agencies down, since you sound like this is your first assignment of such nature and there will be a (in the beginning slow then hopefully quicker and quicker) learning curve.

Ask for at least a two-week deadline, so you can have enough time to do this well, and you can always hand it in before the agreed deadline.

Good luck.

I hope you did not agree to do this on the cheap. Do not do documents under 500 words for less than some sort of reasonable minimum rate at all. Minimum rates go from EUR 35 to 50.

Renegotiate the rate and do this, if you can handle the translation part of the work, and once you emerge on the other side of this project you will be quite experienced in turning scanned PDFs into workable Word documents. Look at the OCR bit of the work not as a nuisance, but as getting paid to learn a new skill, and it doesn't get any better than that.

If you don't mind me saying, but you sound like you need a mentor. Try finding an experienced freelance translator to mentor you.

So, the best of luck! Perhaps let us know how it all went?

[Edited at 2024-02-17 14:50 GMT]

Scanned medical documents | Welcome to the club

Anton Konashenok — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 21:52:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Anton Konashenok
Post title: Welcome to the club

Welcome to the club... This kind of documentation is what medical translators eat for breakfast. To deal with it efficiently, you need:
- At least some background in medicine
- Good typing skills and memory
- Experience: the more of these documents you translate, the more templates remain in your library

Word-for-word translation is actually the worst approach. It's a quick way to get disqualified for professional incompetence and lack of diligence. I don't want to sound harsh, but if you don't fully understand the meaning of the texts you translate (including the jargon), then you have no business translating them.

Scanned medical documents | scam?

Zea_Mays — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:51:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: scam?

Do you know the client very well?

Scanned medical documents | Scanned medical documents

Frank Hedes — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:58:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Frank Hedes
Post title: Scanned medical documents

Hello! Firstly, because it is not editable, this is where the work of editing and formatting each document as it is in the source language comes in, that is, if you are going to use CAT TOOL, this is the way to translate it later. We know that doctors' writing is horrible, especially if there is jargon. You will have to know these jargons.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any tool that translates handwritten texts perfectly, as all it takes is one misalignment and that's it, everything will be wrong.
Unless the writing is perfectly legible, as well as the printed material in the document, both are perfectly aligned, there may be a small 50% chance of it being translatable.
If you are very good at translating word for word, and then putting together the context of the handwritten sentence, go ahead, but know that it will take a lot of your time.
For me the best approach is to transcribe the entire document, edit and format it as closely as possible to the original, and start translating. As you can see, in fact, in addition to the translation, there are 2 more jobs that must be informed to the contractor for approval, as they must also be charged. As a result, the contractor's initial time will no longer be the same, it will be tripled.
He must agree to your price or he will not have your translation done, or if it is done unprofessionally, it will be of poor quality.

Scanned medical documents | ABBYY FineReader 15 OCR Editor

Michael Beijer — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:21:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Michael Beijer
Post title: ABBYY FineReader 15 OCR Editor

I have tried many things over the years and nothing really beats ABBYY FineReader 15 OCR Editor. You can save yourself a lot of trouble down the line by checking each page in ABBYY and selecting the correct recognition modes, such as Tables, Text, etc.

Once you have the Word doc, make sure to also run TransTools' Document Cleaner, which will remove all kinds of crap that would otherwise result in tags in your CAT tool.

• [url removed]
• [url removed]

Michael

PS: and don't forget to charge the client for this, as it can be quite a lot of work sometimes!

[Edited at 2024-02-16 16:22 GMT]

Scanned medical documents

Giovanna Looney — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 15:43:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Scanned medical documents
Poster: Giovanna Looney

Hi I am new. I have received 100 scanned pages, all medical documents. Lots of medical jargon. The request is to have all documents translated. It is not editable, my question is how do you deal with a project like this? is there any special tool I can use? is word by word translation the best approach? it wil take me a long time :( I appreciate your help

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | Such a translation requires a translator specialising in medical diagnostics ...

Edith van der Have — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 07:30:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Edith van der Have
Post title: Such a translation requires a translator specialising in medical diagnostics ...

... not a certified translator (though a certified medical translator would be fine, of course, but no certification of the translation itself is necessary).

ISPOR Translation Certification | Thanks!

Sergio Guillén — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 08:41:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: ISPOR Translation Certification
Poster: Sergio Guillén
Post title: Thanks!

Thank you, Sammy!

ISPOR Translation Certification | My experience: translation agency managed the whole process

Sammy Dowidar — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 10:30:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: ISPOR Translation Certification
Poster: Sammy Dowidar
Post title: My experience: translation agency managed the whole process

Hi Sergio:

I worked many times in this context (translated from english to french medical texts having obviously French authors' names, with some recurrent french-to-english translation approximations), not that the translation agency was transparent about that ('normal' translation orders).

The agency took care of the whole process, as it needed the intervention of several independent persons. I presume it garanteed itself the ISPOR certification.

Hope that helps.

Best regards

Sammy

ISPOR Translation Certification

Sergio Guillén — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 10:04:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: ISPOR Translation Certification
Poster: Sergio Guillén

Hello everyone!

One of my clients is planning to translate a medical questionnaire (Rhinitis Control Assessment Test). The copyright requirements for this questionnaire ask that they provide the final version of the translated questionnaire along with certification of ISPOR confirming best practices were used in the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the content.

As I understand, the ISPOR guidelines for translation state the following process:

Preparation — Obtain permission to use instrument and involvement of the original author.

Forward Translation — Development of at least two independent forward translations.

Reconciliation — Reconciliation of the forward translations into a single forward translation.

Back Translation — Back translation of the reconciled translation into the source language.

Back Translation Review — Review of the back translations against the source language.

Harmonization — Harmonization of all new translations with each other and the source version.

Cognitive Debriefing — Cognitive debriefing of the new translation, with 5-8 healthcare professionals.

Review of Cognitive Debriefing Results and Finalization — Cognitive debriefing results are reviewed and the translation finalized.

Proofreading — The finalized translation is proofread.

Final Report — Report is written on the development of the translation.

I have never faced this kind of request before, so I was wondering if any of you is familiar with it and what's needed to provide this translation of a medical questionnaire following ISPOR guidelines with a certificate.

Any help will be highly appreciated!

[Edited at 2023-03-03 10:04 GMT]

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | Depends

Joseph Tein — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 19:10:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Joseph Tein
Post title: Depends

I thought about my earlier answer and want to change it a bit ... I shouldn't have automatically stated that you're not qualified! It depends on the specific text you're dealing with. If it consists of general language that could come from any everyday setting, with few or no specialized terms, then your experience would be enough to do an adequate job. If it's a long, technical file, then you would not be a good candidate for this because we want to be extremely careful and correct in translating medical information. Again, this is separate from whether someone has some sort of certification or not: it's the experience and competence that really matter.

[Edited at 2022-11-27 19:44 GMT]

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | Doesn't mean anything

Joakim Braun — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 17:26:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Joakim Braun
Post title: Doesn't mean anything

A certification doesn't mean very much as far as competence goes (certified translator speaking here).

The issue is: Are you skilled enough to do this translation, or is the text such that you can acquire the required knowledge through a few hours' research without any misunderstandings that might endanger people's health?

I regularly refuse medical translations that I might conceivably do well, but where patient health is at stake.

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | certified translator?

Michael Newton — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:32:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Michael Newton
Post title: certified translator?

Last spring I translated a book from Russian that was to be used in COVID research. I provided the client with medical translation samples before starting and there seemed to be no problems.

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | Is that really that medical?

jyuan_us — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 13:33:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: jyuan_us
Post title: Is that really that medical?

I don't think such a manual would involve more than high school level biological knowledge, so anybody with strong linguistic skills would be able to do it.

I don't understand why they required a certified translator.

[Edited at 2022-11-27 14:32 GMT]

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | @Ronja

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 10:11:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: @Ronja

Congratulations for your honesty and best luck next time!

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | Thanks for the replies!

Ronja Helder — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 06:57:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Ronja Helder
Post title: Thanks for the replies!

Thank you for the replies everyone!

The main reason why I asked was because some translations require proof of translation by a sworn translator, so I guess I should have changed my wording to be more clear.

I decided to decline the translation because I don't feel qualified to do this properly. Since I mainly translate sales copies, I have no experience translating medical jargon, so I'm glad to see people here also recommending to not take on a translation I don't feel qualified to do.

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | It's the translator, not the certificate

Joseph Tein — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 20:41:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: Joseph Tein
Post title: It's the translator, not the certificate

Good question. Having a translation certificate does not automatically make one qualified to translate anything ... real qualification depends on experience and knowledge of a particular field. Only you can know whether you are familiar, experienced and comfortable with the material; a certificate does not tell you that. Your profile does not mention Medical among your lengthy list of specialties (no human can "specialize" in 10 different fields, by the way), and you haven't answered any KudoZ questions in the medical field to show your in-depth knowledge ... so I would say you are not qualified to take on a project like this. Your client needs to look for an experienced translator who really does specialize in medical translation. A certificate is not essential; it depends on the client whether they want to add that requirement. (I have worked as an evaluator of medical translation tests ... it takes knowledge, experience and attention to detail to work with important medical documents that can make a crucial difference in people's lives.)

[Edited at 2022-11-26 20:44 GMT]

[Edited at 2022-11-26 20:45 GMT]

[Edited at 2022-11-27 19:04 GMT]

Certified translator to translate covid test manual? | Qualified by knowledge or some framed paper?

IrinaN (X) — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:49:00 +0000

Forum: Medical
Topic: Certified translator to translate covid test manual?
Poster: IrinaN (X)
Post title: Qualified by knowledge or some framed paper?

Only you know the answer to the first option. In fact, it should be all that counts. As for the second one, only your client knows what he means by such request, if any was presented.

If you are worried that you might get complaints due to poor quality/errors (forgive me, this is hypothetical but medical is not even your working field) and will not be able to defend your work by proving your formal qualifications and/or relevant experience, then steer clear.